Tag: Graduate Student Association

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Former GSA president’s complaint to be investigated

Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) executive director Fo Niemi said the Graduate Student Association and three of its directors engaged in acts of discrimination and harassment. Photo by Kirubel Mehari

Quebec Human Rights Commission to look into alleged harassment

A complaint filed by the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) on behalf of   former Graduate Student Association (GSA) president Alex Ocheoha against the association and three of its directors will be investigated by the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission, according to Fo Niemi, CRARR’s executive director.

In a press release, Niemi wrote that the GSA and the three directors “engaged in verbal and other acts of discrimination, harassment and intimidation.”

Ocheoha, who is of Nigerian descent, was president of the GSA from June 2015 to May 2016. He first filed a complaint against the association and its directors in November 2016. “They were addressing me in a disrespectful manner, they were shouting at me, they were trying to cause trouble at the meetings,” Ocheoha told The Concordian at the time about the directors’ behaviour.

“Discrimination and harassment at the GSA is systemic,” Ocheoha stated in a recent email. “There is a pervasive culture of harassment, and there is no system in place to deal with it.” Specifically, the former GSA president referred to the fact the association does not have an advocacy centre like the Concordia Student Union does for protecting students’ rights.

Ocheoha said the directors frequently found ways to prevent him from fulfilling his presidential mandate, and that their email communications felt like racial and cyber harassment. According to Niemi’s press release, the problems “included frequent attempts to impeach him and deprive him of his executive salaries [sic].”

The council of directors—composed of 20 directors—is the second-highest governing and decision-making body of the GSA. According to the association’s bylaws, the directors should “endeavour to improve the general condition of the GSA and of graduate students at Concordia University.”

Emails obtained by The Concordian in November 2016 show that GSA directors responded to their former president’s complaints of harassment with emails that were shared with everyone in the organization. On Oct. 29, 2016, for example, Ocheoha received a response to an email from then-GSA director Rahul Kumar on which the whole GSA organization had been Cc’d. In the email, Kumar wrote: “What do you want to prove from this, Alex? That you are full of shit?”

When contacted by The Concordian to comment on the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission investigation, Kumar wrote: “I am sorry I can’t comment on the legal matters, sorry.”

When Ocheoha pointed out that the Cc’d email was an example of ongoing harassment, another former director, Mathilde Ngo Mbom, responded: “Aaaaw the grown-up man feels harassed! Take your balls out of the pockets, put them where (i.e: between your legs) they should be and stop being a cry baby.” She also wrote: “The next time you show some sense of mental disorder, I’ll send these emails to the police, and they will request that you meet a psychiatrist (by force) because you need one.”

Niemi wrote in the press release that the emails and the organization’s “apparent failure to prevent and remedy the situation over a long period created a toxic culture of contempt within the GSA during Ocheoha’s tenure.”
“I get extremely upset each time I recall the very hurtful experience I had during my time as president,” Ocheoha wrote in a recent email. The former president claimed the council was aware of the harrassment and tolerated it. “They all saw the email, and nobody did anything about it. The perpetrators came up with false allegations to justify their harassment,” Ocheoha told The Concordian.

CRARR is seeking $15,000 in moral and punitive damages against the GSA “for failing to take reasonable steps to prevent and stop the harassment and abuse directed at Ocheoha,” according to the press release. CRARR is also seeking an additional $12,000 to $15,000 in damages from each of the three directors, and “systemic remedies that include a zero-tolerance policy against discrimination and harassment involving prohibited grounds such as race, age, disability.” The organization also wants to mandate civil rights training for GSA executives and directors for three consecutive years.

According to Niemi, Ocheoha was willing to settle the case in mediation, but the GSA declined the option. The Concordian reached out to current GSA president Srinivas Bathini as well as vice-president internal Mohammad Taufiquzzaman, but neither responded in time for publication.

In an internal monthly report to the GSA council in October 2017, Taufiquzzaman wrote that one of his highlights as vice-president internal over the course of the month was “looking after the GSA house and the staff members.” His future plan, he wrote, is “maintaining a healthy environment within the GSA house and its student body.”
“It was very insensitive that people appointed by council to a legal committee, which they created to deal with my complaints, were people who were harassing me,” Ocheoha said. “The GSA is supposed to fight for students’ rights, and not use students’ money to oppress other students.”

Photo by Kirubel Mehari

Let’s #CUcompost

Only 50 years ago, Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich wrote “the battle to feed all of humanity is over,” in a book titled The Population Bomb. He predicted that millions would starve within a decade despite any emergency program. The Green Revolution proved him wrong with cross-breeding to develop high-yield and disease-resistant wheat—the world population doubled within 40 to 50 years and production per acre quadrupled.

Now, another food security crisis looms. According to the UN, we waste one third of the food we produce, while 0.8 billion people are undernourished. The UN states it would cost $30 billion to address the world’s food crisis, while food waste losses in industrialized countries alone cost $680 billion. Food waste in industrialized countries occurs mainly at the consumer level. This one is in our hands!

Photo by Kim Gagnon

Beyond reducing food waste, diversion is also critical. Landfills are a leading methane emitter. Simply put, reducing and diverting waste would reduce greenhouse gas emissions dramatically—composting transforms organics into soil.

At Concordia, 43 per cent of waste (255 tonnes) is compostable. Yet, we compost 67 tonnes, and send 188 tonnes to landfills, according to the 2013-2014 Concordia waste audit. We should do better.

The challenge is multi-faceted. Compost bins are rare at Concordia, compostable waste is sent to an out-of-province composting facility, and, ultimately, this social issue requires a culture change.

While Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) at Concordia insists that using closer facilities may not significantly reduce emissions, they also recognize the need for on-site composting. We should strive for a closed, self-sufficient food cycle where we use our own compost to grow our food.

Any on-campus awareness campaign should include two goals: firstly, ensure that compostable waste goes to compost bins, and secondly, minimize the contamination of compost bins with non-compostables. Contamination produces poor quality soil, which is an ongoing problem for Concordia’s City Farm School and Greenhouse, who use compost to grow food on campus.

Last year, Concordia Council on Student Life (CCSL) funded a collaboration called Waste Not, Want Not with a $35,000, two-year grant. The collaboration includes students (Graduate Individualized Student Association), faculty (Loyola Sustainability Research Center) and administration (EH&S). It has three synergistic pillars: more widespread compost bins, a better composting model and an educational campaign.

CCSL funding is to pay only for education, while Concordia’s vice president of services, Roger Coté, stressed his commitment to infrastructure investments. The Sustainable Action Fund (SAF) supported the Waste Not, Want Not campaign with another $1,000.

So far, so good—the number of public compost bins on campus have doubled. Almost all student and university orientation events include compost, and an intensive social media campaign has been launched. 1,500 people engaged per day in a five-day food festival, catered by our very own Hive Café Co-op, to learn how to compost on campus.

More than 62 students, 47 staff and 20 professors signed up to volunteer. Student volunteers, who will be recognized by Concordia’s Co-Curricular Record (CCR), informed the university community about the new compost bins. Staff volunteers, including security, have compost desk signs. Professor volunteers gave class presentations. Concordia’s Creative Reuse Center provided our artistic volunteers with art supplies diverted from landfills to make signs. Concordia’s community is engaged, committed and invested. Like a campfire, though, this spark of community engagement must be maintained with concrete actions.

Concordia is a 50,000-member community, the size of a small town. Much of what we do can be like adding a drop to a bucket of water. To change the culture, that drop must be like ink, changing the colour of the water. Compost must be made present in our minds consistently and persistently.

This year, the Graduate Student Association (GSA) adopted a sustainability policy aiming to reduce and compost food waste. The graduate community must remain vigilant to implement that policy. Concordia Student Union (CSU) already has a sustainability policy, and a campus-wide policy is in the works. Other associations should follow.

All events taking place in the university where food is served should automatically be provided with compost bins as part of the space booking process. Events organized by student associations, faculties, gradpro skills, institutes, research centres and Alumni Relations should be zero waste. While the establishment of policy remains necessary, staff champions who organize those events can make a real and positive difference.

Photo by Kim Gagnon

There are still less than 30 public compost bins. Expansions in public areas and staff kitchenettes are planned but have yet to materialize. Implementing on-site composting remains uncertain, as the Loyola composter remains inoperable. Further infrastructure investments with clear timelines are necessary.

Such infrastructure investments are not unheard of fairy tales for universities. The University of Sherbrooke diverts about 80 per cent of its waste away from landfills, ensures that all common areas, kitchens and lounges are equipped with compost bins, and operates its own composter with a 70 tonnes annual capacity, according to their website. Concordia diverts about 60 per cent of its waste. A total of 363 tonnes of waste from Concordia go to landfills, 188 tonnes of which is compostable—more than 50 per cent—according to Concordia’s 2013-2014 waste audit. Compost should be priority one!

While Concordia’s new strategic directions do not explicitly include sustainability, a separate “outline” integrating it within the new directions was composed by the sustainability governance framework—university committees on sustainability. We must act with a sense of urgency to live up to the sustainability expectations of both Concordia and international communities.

In the meantime, buy only what you need, finish your meals and throw your leftover food and contaminated paper in the compost bins with orange lids! A community consultation hosted by Concordia’s Facilities Management is scheduled for Dec. 2 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in GM 1060-01 to discuss future Concordia investments in on-site composting.

For more information, visit concordia.ca/compost. Whether you are a student, faculty or staff member, join us and share pictures of your sustainable events on our Facebook and Twitter (@CUcompost).

– PhD student Keroles Riad and Professor Peter Stoett

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News

A call for retroactive audits falls short

The Graduate Students’ Association voted to table a controversial motion and pass one of their own Tuesday following proposals from current and former Concordia Student Broadcasting Corporation’s Board of Directors members regarding retroactive audits.
The tabled motion introduced by former CSBC BoD member Sabine Friesinger and Chadi Marouf, would have the GSA encourage CSBC to begin retroactive audits going back three years. If this was not done, the motion would allow the GSA to pull their fee-levies from CJLO, the student radio station that CSBC manages. Instead of accepting that, the GSA passed a motion advocating that the CSBC revise their bylaws in order to provide democratic and transparent practices within one year and publish three years worth of financial statements on their website.
Friesinger and Marouf spoke first on the matter, outlining what they interpreted as a history of financial mismanagement and unanswered allegations from an organization that Friesinger said received the most in student fee-levies of any group on campus but had the least oversight.
A second topic which became the focus of much concern was the CSBC’s membership list, the existence of which many at the meeting were unaware of. The list, which dictates who is and who is not considered a member of the organization, only contains the names of individuals who ask to be included despite the fact that all graduate and undergraduate students pay fee-levies into the corporation.
Angelica Calcagnile, president of the CSBC, argued that retroactive audits were an unnecessary expense and a waste of student money. The auditor employed by both the CSBC and the GSA advised CSBC’s board that audits were not needed for a corporation of their size, and that a financial review would be the industry standard. As Calcagnile explained, the difference between financial reviews and audits are that a review is less expensive but also less thorough than an audit, and is used by almost every organization on campus. The Concordia Student Union, as a multi-million dollar corporation, is legally obligated to provide audits.
During the question period that followed, GSA executives and members raised concerns on a number of issues, including the CSBC’s membership policies. According to Calcagnile, fee-paying students must sign up to be considered voting members of the CSBC according to laws that require them to hold a list of all their members. Due to privacy concerns, the university cannot give the CSBC a list of all fee-paying students, which means that they must keep one themselves.
“We are open to any undergrad or grad student to come and vote at our [Annual General Meeting,]” Calcagnile said. “All they need to do is register with us that they are an undergrad or graduate student, and the agreement that we make people sign basically says ‘I am a student and I have a vested interest or I am interested in voting.’ Nobody has ever been denied and there’s no reason for us to.”
Once both Calcagnile and Friesinger left the room, the GSA debated what actions would be the best response to the motion in question and the concerns they now had. Simon Vickers, one of the GSA’s Arts and Science directors, said at the meeting that he was concerned with the tone of the presentations and some of the additional information provided by Friesinger. This included a copy of a personal email exchange with Wendy Kraus-Heitmann, a former member of CUTV’s provisional BoD.
“It seems to me that they’re positioning us between some sort of infighting that deals with things that are outside of this audit,” Vickers said. “It seems that we’re being asked to attack [CSBC], and I don’t think that we should move forward with this, I think that we should find an alternative.”
Friesinger’s motion was eventually tabled until a future meeting to allow the GSA more time to investigate the matter, and to allow them to pass their own motion in response.
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Opinions

Reconciliation lies in the admittance of guilt

This past Monday, Concordia’s Graduate Student Association hosted a public forum entitled, BDS (Boycott Divestment and Sanctions): Do we have a role in the Palestine-Israel conflict? One of the panelists, Mary-Jo Nadeau, accused Israeli forces of targeting civilian homes, schools, mosques, United Nations shelters, and educational institutions in its recent assaults on the West Bank. When Nadeau, a lecturer at the University of Toronto, asked students “why [they thought Israel would] bomb schools and universities,” no one responded, myself included. Although I wanted to stand up, throw my clothes off like the woman in Titianic, and yell, “yes, yes Ms. Nadeau, please explain to me why Israel purposely bombs public schools,” I could not. I failed to be myself, thus allowing for yet another, very quiet Monday afternoon.

Hypocritical and slanderous statements like the ones made in this forum are precisely the reason why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has yet to be resolved. Leaders on both sides seem keener on pointing out the flaws of their opposition rather than making the admissions of guilt necessary for peace. While the Palestinian Authority doesn’t miss a chance to condemn Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands, Israelis lament the rocket fire coming out of Gaza. Instead of pointing fingers, why can’t both sides not only admit, but stress their own wrongdoings?

I am a Jew. I am a Zionist. I am an ardent supporter of the two-state solution. I admit without reservation that Israel’s handling of the Palestinian crisis in recent years has been grossly ignorant and irresponsible. However, in Monday’s forum, there was no such recognition of guilt.

Panelists spent their allotted time criticizing the actions of Israel and failed to mention any responsibility on the part of Palestinians. As a result, the forum proved to be more of a slanderous outcry for action than a productive dialogue.

The BDS campaign, the central topic of Monday’s forum, is a movement which is, in my opinion, in a direct opposition to peace. It demands an end to “occupation and colonization of all Arab lands” and for the complete dismantling of the security fence currently dividing Israel from the West Bank and Gaza. Such demands are not only one-sided, but are also prone to widespread misinterpretation.

Jeremy Ben Ami, founder of the pro-peace group J-Street, writes that “too many in and around the BDS movement refuse to acknowledge either the legitimacy of Israel or the right of the Jewish people as well as the Palestinian people to a state.”

In addition, singling out what could be called the only democratic state in the Middle East seems hypocritical. Why not boycott the likes of Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Iran, where human rights violations are rampant and corruption widespread?

Yves Engler, one of the panelists, fervently argued for the boycott of Israeli made goods, yet fell short of supporting this year’s government sanctions on Iranian oil.

The situation isn’t improved by the fact that some of Nadeau’s statements are a bit misleading. Israel does not, in fact, intentionally bomb public institutions. Rather, it makes a considerable effort to avoid civilian casualties. Yet when Hamas continues to fire rockets from densely populated areas, it becomes increasingly difficult for Israel to fight its enemies.

With such a polarized debate, it is easy to point fingers and perhaps that is precisely what I am doing here in these concluding remarks. However, it is only to highlight the shortcomings of the panel. Instead of vilifying one another, let us be more commodious in our arguments so that we may come one step closer to reconciliation.

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News

Concordia has strength in numbers

The Concordia Student Union and the Canadian Federation of Students are back at it again.

The CSU called a special meeting last Wednesday to address the ongoing lawsuit between it and the CFS, the nation’s largest student association that works at a federal level.

The meeting, with a brief introduction from former CSU President Lex Gill, was conducted in closed session to discuss the potential joining of the separate cases filed by the CSU and the university’s Graduate Students’ Association against the CFS.

Both student groups have been trying to leave the CFS unsuccessfully for years, resulting in a slew of accusations from the CFS that both the CSU and the GSA owe unpaid and mounting dues.

On Friday, Jan. 11, the GSA unanimously voted in favour of collaborating with the CSU pending the undergraduate association’s approval.

CSU President Schubert Laforest said the CFS has been notified of the motion.

“After a lengthy discussion where council weighed the pros and potential cons of joining the cases, council decided unanimously to join the cases,” said Laforest. “The CFS is aware of this but we haven’t gotten any response about it as of yet.”

This Wednesday, a motion will be brought before the courts to allow the merging of the two cases against the CFS so they can be tried at the same time.

In March 2010, the CSU held a referendum where an overwhelming percentage of students voted to leave the CFS. The association in turn claimed the process was illegitimate and barred the CSU from leaving. Similarly, when students voted for the departure of the GSA from the CFS in April 2010, the CFS refused to acknowledge the referendum.

Approximately a year later following failed negotiations, the CSU filed a lawsuit for the organization to officially recognize the results and allow them to leave.

In response, the CFS countered with their own lawsuit against the CSU in early 2012, claiming that the union that governs the undergraduate student body owed them close to $2 million in unpaid fees. Since 2010, the CFS has been claiming that the student association have an obligation to pay $1 million.

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